South Asian Public Health Association

After many (many) years the South Asian Public Health Association finally has an updated website. Please refer to this website to see what is happening within our community!

I encourage you all to sign up and become members. As a board member I hope to see much change within this organization over the next few years!

http://www.sapha.org/

Indian Vegetarian Cooking

A good friend passed this wonderful website to me. It provides great, easy healthy vegetarian cooking

http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/

Happy Cooking...

F.D.A to Clarify Nutrition Labels

The New York Times in October (sorry for the delayed post) reported the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is scheduled to clarify food labels. Now this - would be good for South Asians, particularly individuals who may have a lower english-proficiency level.

The FDA proposes that by early 2010, companies must follow the standard of putting nutrition food labels on front of all food packaging. Thus, forcing manufacturers to provide consumers quick access to dietary information. According to the article, Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, the F.D.A. commissioner, said that under the changes being discussed, putting nutrition information on the front of packages would be voluntary. But if manufacturers chose to do so, then they would have to comply with the new F.D.A. rules.

Progress on Health Insurance Reform

I apologize for not blogging lately - it seems that I got caught up in life and have clearly missed on some great blogging materials. For one - Health Care Reform!!

Over the past few weeks - Health Care Reform has been exceedingly discussed (as should be) everywhere. Recently, SAALT provided a great summary of the update news...

Over the past few weeks, there have been numerous developments in health insurance reform. Below is a quick rundown of what has happened recently in Congress and the impact on immigrants living in the US.

• House of Representatives: The House of Representatives have merged three bills developed by various committees in the chamber. On Saturday, November 7th, the House passed its version of health reform which includes the public option; prevents insurance companies from discriminating based on gender or health status; expands Medicaid eligibility; prioritizes preventative care; allows undocumented immigrants to participate in the health insurance exchange by using their own money; and increases access to culturally and linguistically appropriate health services. In addition, the bill also prohibits public money from being spent on plans covering abortion, even if paid for with private premium dollars.
• Senate: Two Senate committees, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) and Finance Committees, have developed their versions of reform. The Senate is expected to start debate sometime next week with a possible vote in December.

None of the bills currently include any provisions that would life the 5-year waiting period for legal immigrants to become eligible for Medicaid and CHIP. Another issue affecting immigrants being considered is whether to impose additional verification requirements on immigrants in order to access the health care system.